Former NSYNC star Lance Bass and husband Michael Turchin dropped by the HuffPost Live studios earlier this week to talk about their interfaith marriage, and to promote the amazingly titled 90-minute E! TV special “Lance Loves Michael: The Lance Bass Wedding,” which aired last night.
The couple, who married underneath a chuppah in a lavish ceremony in L.A. in December, are from totally different worlds: Bass is from a family of conservative Southern Baptists, and Turchin is Jewish.
Bass is hopeful that the broadcast will help to diminish the stigma around gay marriage, particularly in his family’s community: “Religion is the reason why we’re still fighting about the word ‘marriage,’ and I think this is going to be so important for people to see. Take religion out of it, it’s all just about love, and when you see my Republican, conservative, Southern Baptist parents… walk their gay son down the aisle, it shows you how everyone should act. You should just focus on the love and not worry about anything else.”
As for the interfaith aspect of their relationship, the couple plan to take a ‘spiritual but not religious’ approach to parenting.
“We’re going to introduce them to everything, and it’s up to them whatever they are drawn to. But I want to show them every walk of life and every culture and let them decide for themselves what they believe,” said Bass.
“I’m definitely going to teach them and show them their Jewish past, just so they have the understanding,” added Turchin. “But I’m not going to force them to believe anything or to adhere to any specific religious laws or anything like that. I think there’s more harm in that than good, I really do.”
(Image: Michael Turchin and Lance Bass, après-engagement, December 2013. Credit: Robin Marchant/Getty)